Undesirable encounter avoidance

ABSTRACT

A method disclosed herein for allows users to avoid such undesirable encounters by determining whether an undesirable contact of the user has opted for sharing location information, in response to determining that the undesirable contact has opted for sharing location information, collecting location signal from the undesirable contact, forecasting anticipated locations of the undesirable contact over a period based on the location signal of the undesirable contact, forecasting anticipated locations of the user over the period, determining potential of encounter between the user and the undesirable contact based on analysis of anticipated locations of the user and the anticipated locations of the undesirable contact over the period, generating an undesirable contact avoidance scheme based on the potential of encounter, and optionally notifying the user of the undesirable contact avoidance scheme.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application is a Continuation of and claims benefit from orpriority of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/142,963, filed Sep. 26,2018, entitled “UNDESIRABLE ENCOUNTER AVOIDANCE” which is a continuationof U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 15/623,155 entitled“UNDESIRABLE ENCOUNTER AVOIDANCE” and filed on Jun. 14, 2017, now U.S.Pat. No. 10,117,054, issued Oct. 30, 2018, both of which arespecifically incorporated by reference for all that they disclose andteach.

BACKGROUND

In today's increasingly connected world, a person's current location atis widely shared by various mobile apps and devices. As a result, aperson's current location may be easily available to other users,including other users that are in the social network of the person.While such capability to share current location may be generally lookedupon as beneficial, it also presents opportunity for other users to runinto planned or unplanned encounters with a person, even when thatperson is not interested in such encounters or when that person istrying to actively avoid certain other users.

SUMMARY

Implementations described herein disclose a method of avoidingundesirable encounters with other people by determining whether anundesirable contact of the user has opted for sharing locationinformation, in response to determining that the undesirable contact hasopted for sharing location information, collecting a location signalfrom the undesirable contact, forecasting anticipated locations of theundesirable contact over a period based on the location signal of theundesirable contact, forecasting anticipated locations of the user overthe period, determining a potential of encounter between the user andthe undesirable contact based on analysis of anticipated locations ofthe user and the anticipated locations of the undesirable contact overthe period, generating an undesirable contact avoidance scheme based onthe potential of encounter, and optionally notifying the user of theundesirable contact avoidance scheme.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Other implementations are also described and recited herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the presenttechnology may be realized by reference to the figures, which aredescribed in the remaining portion of the specification. In the figures,like reference numerals are used throughout several figures to refer tosimilar components.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example implementation of a system that allowsusers to avoid undesirable encounters.

FIG. 2 illustrates example operations that allows users to avoidundesirable encounters.

FIG. 3 illustrates example operations to initiate a user's participationin an undesirable encounter avoidance system.

FIG. 4 illustrates alternative example operations to generate variousundesirable encounter avoidance schemes.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example computing system that may be useful inimplementing the described technology for undesirable encounteravoidance system.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example mobile device that may be useful inimplementing the described technology for undesirable encounteravoidance system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS

The advances in the telecommunication, computing, and wirelesstechnologies have resulted in capabilities for users to interact withother people using a large number of applications. Specifically, theadvances in the mobile device technologies such as wireless networks andglobal positioning system (GPS) networks results in users being able todetermine location of other people such as their friends and families.For example, smartphone apps allow users to find out if a friend or afamily member is at a given location of interest such as a restaurant orwithin a certain range of the user.

For example, a user Alice using a smartphone can determine if any of herfriends Bart, Chris, Doug, and Emily are within a mile from Alice'scurrent location. Alternatively, if Alice is going to a café calledCoffee Palace, she can find out if any of Bart, Chris, Doug, and Emilyare at the Coffee Palace. Furthermore, Alice may also be able to findout if any of Bart, Chris, Doug, and Emily have any plans to go to theCoffee Palace in next few hours or so. Such information about thecurrent or future locations may be gathered based on the GPS systemcommunicating with the mobile devices of these friends or based onanalysis of various personal graphs of these friends, such as personalgraphs generated based on their social network postings, theircalendars, etc.

Such capability to determine potential location of the friends may bevery useful for Alice if she is interested in seeing any of Bart, Chris,Doug, and Emily. However, there may be situations where Alice is notinterested in meeting one of them. For example, Alice may have recentlyended a bad breakup with Bart, in which case Alice may be interested inavoiding any potential encounter with Bart. One way for Alice toaccomplish this may be constantly monitor any available informationabout Bart. However, Alice may not have access to all such information,especially when Alice and Bart may be not connected by any networksubsequent to the breakup. Alternatively, Alice may simply walk awaywhen she spots Bart. However, in such a case Bart may still notice Aliceand may try to approach her, making up an odd encounter. The systemdisclosed herein provides various implementations that allow Alice toavoid such undesirable encounters with Bart, or any other people.

Specifically, the system for avoiding undesirable encounters with otherpeople disclosed herein allows any user, such as Alice, to avoid suchundesirable encounters by determining whether an undesirable contact ofthe user has opted for sharing location information, in response todetermining that the undesirable contact has opted for sharing locationinformation, collecting location signal from the undesirable contact,forecasting anticipated locations of the undesirable contact over aperiod based on the location signal of the undesirable contact,forecasting anticipated locations of the user over the period,determining potential of encounter between the user and the undesirablecontact based on analysis of anticipated locations of the user and theanticipated locations of the undesirable contact over the period,generating an undesirable contact avoidance scheme based on thepotential of encounter, and notifying the user of the undesirablecontact avoidance scheme.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example implementation of an undesirable encounteravoidance (UEA) system 100 that allows a user to avoid running intovarious selected people that the user is trying to avoid withoutcompromising the privacy of the user or such other people. For example,by using the UEA system 100, Alice can avoid running into Bart, or anyother persons. Specifically, in one implementation, the UEA system 100allows Alice to avoid running into Bart if Bart has consented toparticipate in use of the UEA system 100. In yet alternativeimplementation, the UEA system 100 allows Alice to avoid running intoBart without knowing the location of Bart.

The UEA system 100 includes a UEA server 102 that is configured tocommunicate with various information sources, users, and othercomponents via a network 104. For example, such network 104 may be theInternet. One such source of information may be a social network server106 that manages one or more social networks. Note that while only onesocial network server 106 is illustrated in FIG. 1, alternativeimplementations may include a large number of social networks that theUEA server 102 communicates to gather information about users. Forexample, such social networks may include social networks that allowusers to connect with their friends and family, a social network thatallows users to network with their professional network, a socialnetwork for posting locations, photographs, etc. In one implementation,the UEA server 102 collects information about various people that theuser may be interested in avoiding.

The UEA application server 102 also interacts with a mapping server 108that provides mapping information, such as city maps, locations ofrestaurants, locations of various users. FIG. 1 illustrates such a mapsegment 150 including locations of various users and locations. A GPSsatellite 110 may provide GPS data to various applications and theusers. A traffic analysis API 112 may interact with the mapping server108, the satellite 110, and various other data sources to determinetraffic information in various different locations on the map segment150 presented by the mapping server.

Specifically, the map segment 130 may be disclosing location of Alice,who is traveling using the vehicle 132 to the Coffee Palace 136. The UEAsystem 100 may determine that Bart is at the Coffee Palace 136 or isgoing to be at the Coffee Palace 136 in the near future, based on datacollected from Bart's mobile phone 134. In such a case, the UEA system100 may find an alternate Café, such as the Donut Palace 136 a andrecommend Alice to go to the Donut Palace 136 a instead of the CoffeePalace 136. If Alice approves such alternative destination, the UEAsystem 100 may suggest a route 138 to Alice to go to the Donut Palace136 a. However, if the UEA system 100 determines that another user, sayDoug 140 is near the route 138 and if Alice has also requested to avoidDoug, who is using a tablet 140, the UEA system 100 suggests yetalternate route 138 a to Alice to go to the Donut Palace 136 a. The UEAsystem 100 provides these and other capabilities to Alice and otherusers using one or more of the modules on the UEA server 102 asdiscussed below.

The UEA server 102 includes a signal collection module 114 that collectsvarious information about users. For example, such information includesuser location information collected from signal gathering components 126on user devices, such as Bart's mobile phone 134, Doug's tablet 140. Thesignal gathering components 126 may verify if the user has consented toparticipate in the UEA system 100 and if the user has consented to shareits location information with the UEA server 102. Upon determining suchparticipation and consent, the signal gathering components 126 mayupload location information to the signal gathering module 114.

In one implementation, the frequency at which the signal gatheringcomponents 126 uploads the location information to the signal gatheringmodule 114 may depend upon user input, the available battery power onthe user device, the location of the user with respect to otherpeople—specifically the people that the user is trying to void, thedirection and/or the speed of the user, etc. For example, for Alicetravelling using the vehicle 132, when she gets close to Bart at theCoffee Palace 136, the signal gathering component 126 may increase thefrequency at which it uploads the location information. In analternative implementation, when Alice's vehicle 132 gets close to Bart,the UEA system 100 may send a signal to the signal gathering component126 on Bart's mobile phone 136 and as a result, the signal gatheringcomponent 126 on Bart's mobile phone 136 may also increase the frequencyof uploading the location information to the signal collection module114.

The UEA server 102 may also include a location extrapolation module 116that uses the location information collected at the signal collectionmodule 114 to determine current and potential locations of variousparticipants. In one implementation, the location extrapolation module116 may use the speed at which a user is moving, speeds at which peoplethat may result in undesirable encounter with the user, calendars ofvarious users, etc., to extrapolate location information. For example,if Alice has elected to avoid encounters with Bart, the locationextrapolation module 116 may analyze the calendar information fromBart's calendar to see where Bart is supposed to be during various timeperiods. If there are multiple people that a user is trying to avoid,location information about each of these people may be extrapolated bythe location extrapolation module 116. The time window for which suchlocation information is extrapolated may be determined based on userinput, speed of user, etc. In one implementation, the locationextrapolation module 116 may extrapolate location information for agiven user and each of the people that the given user is trying to avoidfor a period of two hours and updates such two-hour window for locationsat a predetermined frequency of every ten minutes. For example, if Alicehas elected to avoid Bart and Doug, the location extrapolation module116 may extrapolate two-hour location information for each of Alice,Bart, and Doug and update such two-hour location information every tenminutes.

The UEA server 102 also includes an encounter avoidance module 118 thatanalyzes the location information of various people for various timeperiods to determine if any of the people that a user is trying to avoidoverlaps with the user at any location. In the above example where Aliceis trying to avoid Bart and Doug, the encounter avoidance module 118analyzes the two-hour location information for each of Alice, Bart, andDoug to determine any potential encounter between Alice and Bart orAlice and Doug. For example, if at 12:00 Alice's extrapolated to be atthe Coffee Palace 136 at 12:30 to 13:30 PM, Bart is expected to be atthe Coffee Palace 136 between 12:00 and 1:30, and Doug is expected to beon the route 138 at 12:15, at 12:00, the encounter avoidance module 118may determine to suggest Alice to go to the Donut Palace 136 a usingroute 138 a, so as to avoid potential encounters with Bart and Doug.

A user interaction module 120 of the UEA server 102 may work with a UEAapp 128 based on the mobile devices of users to communicate with theuser's. For example, such UEA app 128 may be installed at the user'srequest on their mobile devices, such Alice's mobile device 132 a,Bart's mobile phone 134, Doug's table 140, etc. The user interactionmodule 120 may communicate with users to initiate their participation inthe UEA system 100. For example, after hearing about the availability ofthe UEA app 128 Alice may install it on her mobile device 132 a. Afterthe installation, using a UEA user interface, Alice may request that shewants to avoid encounters with Bart and Doug. As part of these request,Alice may provide some identifying information about Bart and Doug, suchas their mobile device numbers, their social network identifications,etc.

Upon receiving the identifying information about Bart and Doug, the userinteraction module 120 communicates with Bart and Doug to request themto join the UEA system or to simply receive their consent. For example,the user interaction module 120 may communicate with Bart and Doug via atext message, via a message on their social app, an email, etc. As anexample, the user interaction module 120 may send a text message toinvite them to download the UEA app 128 on their mobile device.Alternatively, the user interaction module 120 may send them a textmessage to inform that a user of the UEA system 100 has requestedavoiding encounters with them without giving them the identity of suchuser. If any of Bart or Doug gives such consent, the user interactionmodule 120 may send a message to Alice to inform her that at least oneperson that she has requested for encounter avoidance has consented toher request.

Once Alice's account is set up to have encounter avoidance with varioususers, the user interaction module 120 may also interact with the use,their mobile device, or one or more applications running on their mobiledevice to effectuate such encounter avoidance. For example, if Alice isusing a navigation application on her mobile device 132 a, upondetecting potential encounter with Bart, the user interaction module 120may interact with such navigation application to suggest an alternativedestination, an alternative route, etc.

A privacy management module 122 of the UEA server 102 manages theprivacy of various participants of the UEA system 100. Specifically, theprivacy management module 122 ensures that location of an individualuser not exposed to other users. Thus, it ensures that the UEA system100 is not used by any user to locate other users, thus avoiding thepotential of a user stalking or following another user. In oneimplementation, to achieve such privacy, the privacy management module122 requires that when a user initiates their participation in the UEAsystem 100, they include at least a significant number of individualusers that they want to avoid within a given geographic region. Forexample, when Alice signs up to use the UEA system 100 to avoidencounters with Bart and Doug, she is required to identify a significantnumber of users in the geographic area where each of Bart and Doug arelocated so that when Alice receives a signal about a potential undesiredencounter, she cannot infer the identity of the person related to thepotential undesired encounter. In an alternative implementation, Alicedoes not receive any signal about the potential undesired encounter andshe is automatically redirected to alternative location or route.Furthermore, Alice may be able to set the UEA system for herself suchthat she can decide whether she wants to receive a signal about anundesirable encounter or whether she would prefer to be automaticallyredirected without knowledge about the potential encounters. In anexample implementation, Alice is requested to identify at least fiveusers.

In an alternative implementation, the privacy management module 122randomly selects a predetermined number of users to the pool of usersavoided so as to ensure that location of any individual user is notexposed. Thus, if Alice requests that she wants to avoid Bart and Doug,the privacy management module 122 randomly selects a few additionalusers as well where Alice would also be notified to avoid encounter withthese additional users. For example, the additional users may beauto-generated fake users and generate fake encounters. The privacymanagement module 122 also notifies Alice that she is going to receivenotifications when she is likely to encounter users other than Bart andDoug as well. As a result, when Alice receives a notification about apotential encounter she cannot infer for sure who such potentialencounter may be. In one implementation, the privacy management module122 includes such random users such that for any geographical area,there are at least five users that Alice may be avoiding.

A database 124 of the UEA server 102 stores various information aboutthe users, such as user profiles, user consent data. In oneimplementation, the database 124 may also store previous usage patternsof the users such as the users' acceptance of suggestions for encounteravoidance, etc., to further refine generating the encounter avoidancenotifications. For example, if a user is more likely to reject asuggestion when it adds significant commute time, the encounteravoidance module 118 may use such preference pattern to modify futuresuggestion generation.

FIG. 2 illustrates example operations 200 that allows users to avoidundesirable encounters. Various operations 200 may be stored on acomputer readable memory of a computing device, such as a cloud basedserver, and implemented by a processor. Specifically, the operations 200provides a user an undesirable encounter avoidance scheme that wouldallow the user to avoid an undesirable encounter with one or moreselected users. An operation 202 initiates a user in a UEA system (suchas the UEA system 100 of FIG. 1). For example, the user may be initiatedin the UEA system by installing an app on the user's mobile device, byregistering the user online, etc. Furthermore, the operation 202 mayalso receive other information about the user, such as information fromthe user's calendar, the user's social graph, the user's professionalgraph, etc. An operation 204 receives a list of other people identifiedby the user as undesirable contacts with whom the user would like toavoid undesirable contacts. The user may identify such undesirablecontacts by the phone numbers, the email addresses, social networkidentifiers, etc., of such undesirable contacts.

Subsequently, an operation 206 determines whether an undesirable contactof the user has opted for sharing location information. For example, ifthe user, Alice, has identified Bart as an undesirable contact, theoperation 206 determines if Bart has consented to share locationinformation with the UEA system (such as the UEA system 100 of FIG. 1).Note that the operation 206 may determine whether Bart has consented toshare location information with the UEA system at a number of differenttimes. For example, once Alice identifies Bart as an undesirablecontact, the UEA system may check to see if Bart has opted into the UEAsystem at some prior time. Alternatively, the UEA system mayperiodically check to see if Bart has opted into the UEA system at somelater time and in response to Bart's opting in, Bart is added as anactive undesirable contact for Alice to effectuate undesirableencounters between Alice and Bart.

If the undesirable contact has consented to such sharing of information,an operation 208 collects location information from the undesirablecontact. While the operation 208 is illustrated as a single operation,the collecting of the location information may be repeated atpredetermined intervals. Such collection of the location informationfrom the undesirable contact may be optimized based on variousparameters such as user device battery life, closeness of the user withrespect to the undesirable contact, etc.

An operation 210 collects other information about the undesirablecontact, such as calendar information, social graph, etc. Again, theoperation 210 collects such other information about the undesirablecontact only if the undesirable contact has consented to collection ofsuch information. An operation 212 forecasts anticipated locations ofthe user over a period. For example, the operation 212 may forecast suchanticipated locations over a period of two hours based on calendar ofthe user, the location and direction of the user, social networkdiscussion of the user, etc.

An operation 214 forecasts anticipated locations of various undesirablecontacts over the similar time period. In doing such forecast, theoperation 214 may use various information about such undesirablecontact, such as their current location, their historic locations, theirsocial and professional graph, their calendar, etc. For example, theoperation 214 may take into consideration that when a user takes aparticular route, it is generally to visit a certain relative of theuser. An operation analyzes the anticipated locations of the undesirablecontacts (determined at operation 214) in view of the anticipatedlocation of the user (as determined at operation 212) to determinepotential encounters between the user and one or more of the undesirablecontacts.

If there is a potential of any undesirable encounter between the userand at least one of the undesirable contacts, an operation 218 generatesan undesirable contact avoidance scheme. For example, such anundesirable contact avoidance scheme may be an alternative destination,an alternative route, a change in the schedule of the user, etc. Anoperation 220 notifies the user of undesirable contact avoidance scheme.In one implementation, such notification may be direct in form of a textmessage or a message within a UEA app on the user's mobile device. In analternative implementation, such notification may be via anotherapplication, such as a navigation application, a calendar application,etc.

FIG. 3 illustrates example operations 300 to initiate a user'sparticipation in an undesirable encounter avoidance system. Variousoperations 300 may be stored on a computer readable memory of acomputing device, such as a cloud based server, and implemented by aprocessor. An operation 302 receives a request from a user toparticipate in the UEA system. For example, the user may download an appon their mobile device to initiate such participation. At an operation304, the UEA app may receive various parameters of the user in responseto downloading of such app. Alternatively, the UEA app may requestinformation such as the location of the user and other personalinformation of the user via a UEA user interface.

An operation 306 receives a list of undesirable contacts from the user.For example, the user may identify a list of phone numbers from thecontact list on the mobile device, a list of members from her socialnetwork, etc., as undesirable contacts. Furthermore, an operation 306receives various conditions related to each of the undesirable contacts.For example, Alice may select to avoid encounters with Bart when Aliceand Chris are together. Alternatively, Alice may select to avoid Bartonly in the evenings and weekends. Yet alternatively, Alice may selectto avoid Doug in locations that sell alcoholic beverages.

An operation 310 determines if the user has provided a significantnumber of undesirable contacts. Specifically, the operation 310determines if the user has provided significant number of contacts pergiven geographic region. This it to ensure the privacy of theundesirable contact. For example, if Alice gives only Bart as thecontact to avoid in the Herzliya metro area, any time she receives anotification about a potential undesirable encounter, Alice would beable to infer that Bart is at the desired location. This wouldcompromise Bart's privacy. For example, the threshold number used byoperation 310 may be five contacts per metro area. The operation 310 mayevaluate the number of contacts at a number of different times, such asupon Alice's initiation in the system or on a periodic basis in thefuture. For example, when Alice joins the UEA system and identifiescertain undesirable contact, such contact may already have opted intothe UEA system and would count in meeting the threshold. Alternatively,if such a contact opts into the system in future, at that point thedetermination of whether dummy contacts is required is reevaluated.

If the number of undesirable contacts is less than the threshold, anoperation 312 notifies the user that the UEA system will be using dummycontacts as undesirable contacts. An operation 314 selects such dummycontacts. Alternatively, such dummy contacts may be randomly selectedfrom other users with characteristics similar to one or more of theundesirable contacts identified by the user. As an example, if Alice hasselected Bart as one of the undesirable contacts and Bart is more likelyto frequent café s, the operation 314 selects other users, either fromcontact list of Alice or otherwise, where these other users are alsolikely to visit Cafés. An operation 320 sends notifications to theundesirable contacts, those identified by the user and those randomlyselected to receive their consent to be part of the UEA system.

FIG. 4 illustrates alternative example operations 400 to generatevarious undesirable encounter avoidance schemes. Various operations 400may be stored on a computer readable memory of a computing device, suchas a cloud based server, and implemented by a processor. An operation402 receives forecasted locations of the user and the list ofundesirable contacts for a given time-period. For example, forecastedlocations over a period of two-hours is provided. An operation 404receives location parameters for various locations identified aspotential locations for undesirable encounters between the user and oneor more undesirable contacts. Such parameters about the locations may bethe size of the location, crowd size at the location, the lightingconditions at the location, noise levels at the location, etc.

An operation 406 evaluates the locations where the user may encounter anundesirable contact in view of these parameters to determine thepotential encounters and their probabilities. For example, if it isidentified that the user may run into an undesirable contact at a verycrowded supermarket with high noise level, the operation 406 may assigna lower probability that the user will actually run into the undesirablecontact. An operation 408 evaluates the encounter probability against athreshold to determine if a UEA scheme is appropriate. Such thresholdmay be given by the user. In one implementation, the user may givedifferent threshold level for different undesirable contacts. Forexample, Alice may specify that she does not want to run into Bart ever,and even if there is only one percent chance of encounter with Bart, shewould rather prefer having an option for a UEA avoidance scheme. On theother hand, Alice may be willing to take chance and not change heritinerary to avoid Doug as long as the probability of such encounter isless than 25 percent.

If it is determined that a UEA is desirable, an operation 410 generatesvarious UEA avoidance schemes. For example, such schemes may be based onalternative destination for the user, an alternative route for the user,a change in scheduled time of visit to the destination, etc. Anoperation 412 gives the user an option to provide an input in selectionof the UEA scheme. For example, such input may be selection of time ofvisit, selection of route, etc. An operation 414 revises the UEA schemebased on the input. An operation 420 selects the appropriate UEA scheme.The selected UEA scheme may be presented to the user directly of viaanother application, such as a calendar, a navigation application, etc.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example system 500 that may be useful inimplementing the UEA system disclosed herein. The example hardware andoperating environment of FIG. 5 for implementing the describedtechnology includes a computing device, such as a general-purposecomputing device in the form of a computer 20, a mobile telephone, apersonal data assistant (PDA), a tablet, smart watch, gaming remote, orother type of computing device. In the implementation of FIG. 5, forexample, the computer 20 includes a processing unit 21, a system memory22, and a system bus 23 that operatively couples various systemcomponents including the system memory to the processing unit 21. Theremay be only one or there may be more than one processing unit 21, suchthat the processor of a computer 20 includes a single central-processingunit (CPU), or a plurality of processing units, commonly referred to asa parallel processing environment. The computer 20 may be a conventionalcomputer, a distributed computer, or any other type of computer; theimplementations are not so limited.

In the example implementation of the computing system 500, the computer20 also includes an UEA module 550 providing one or more functions ofthe UEA operations disclosed herein. The system bus 23 may be any ofseveral types of bus structures including a memory bus or memorycontroller, a peripheral bus, a switched fabric, point-to-pointconnections, and a local bus using any of a variety of busarchitectures. The system memory may also be referred to as simply thememory, and includes read-only memory (ROM) 24 and random access memory(RAM) 25. A basic input/output system (BIOS) 26, containing the basicroutines that help to transfer information between elements within thecomputer 20, such as during start-up, is stored in ROM 24. The computer20 further includes a hard disk drive 27 for reading from and writing toa hard disk, not shown, a magnetic disk drive 28 for reading from orwriting to a removable magnetic disk 29, and an optical disk drive 30for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 31 such as a CDROM, DVD, or other optical media.

The computer 20 may be used to implement a signal sampling moduleconfigured to generate sampled signals based on the reflected modulatedsignal 72 as illustrated in FIG. 1. In one implementation, a frequencyunwrapping module including instructions to unwrap frequencies based onthe sampled reflected modulations signals may be stored in memory of thecomputer 20, such as the read-only memory (ROM) 24 and random accessmemory (RAM) 25, etc.

Furthermore, instructions stored on the memory of the computer 20 may beused by a system for delivering personalized user experience. Similarly,instructions stored on the memory of the computer 20 may also be used toimplement one or more operations of a personalized user experiencedelivery system disclosed herein.

The hard disk drive 27, magnetic disk drive 28, and optical disk drive30 are connected to the system bus 23 by a hard disk drive interface 32,a magnetic disk drive interface 33, and an optical disk drive interface34, respectively. The drives and their associated tangiblecomputer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thecomputer 20. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatany type of tangible computer-readable media may be used in the exampleoperating environment.

A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk, magneticdisk 29, optical disk 31, ROM 24, or RAM 25, including an operatingsystem 35, one or more application programs 36, other program modules37, and program data 38. A user may generate reminders on the personalcomputer 20 through input devices such as a keyboard 40 and pointingdevice 42. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone(e.g., for voice input), a camera (e.g., for a natural user interface(NUI)), a joystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or thelike. These and other input devices are often connected to theprocessing unit 21 through a serial port interface 46 that is coupled tothe system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as aparallel port, game port, or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 47or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 23via an interface, such as a video adapter 48. In addition to themonitor, computers typically include other peripheral output devices(not shown), such as speakers and printers.

The computer 20 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections to one or more remote computers, such as remote computer 49.These logical connections are achieved by a communication device coupledto or a part of the computer 20; the implementations are not limited toa particular type of communications device. The remote computer 49 maybe another computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a client, a peerdevice or other common network node, and typically includes many or allof the elements described above relative to the computer 20. The logicalconnections depicted in FIG. 5 include a local-area network (LAN) 51 anda wide-area network (WAN) 52. Such networking environments arecommonplace in office networks, enterprise-wide computer networks,intranets and the Internet, which are all types of networks.

When used in a LAN-networking environment, the computer 20 is connectedto the local area network 51 through a network interface or adapter 53,which is one type of communications device. When used in aWAN-networking environment, the computer 20 typically includes a modem54, a network adapter, a type of communications device, or any othertype of communications device for establishing communications over thewide area network 52. The modem 54, which may be internal or external,is connected to the system bus 23 via the serial port interface 46. In anetworked environment, program engines depicted relative to the personalcomputer 20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memorystorage device. It is appreciated that the network connections shown areexample and other means of communications devices for establishing acommunications link between the computers may be used.

In an example implementation, software or firmware instructions forrequesting, processing, and rendering mapping data may be stored insystem memory 22 and/or storage devices 29 or 31 and processed by theprocessing unit 21. Mapping data and/or layer prioritization scheme datamay be stored in system memory 22 and/or storage devices 29 or 31 aspersistent data-stores. A UEA module 550 communicatively connected withthe processing unit 21 and the memory 22 may enable one or more of thecapabilities of the personalized UEA system disclosed herein.

In contrast to tangible computer-readable storage media, intangiblecomputer-readable communication signals may embody computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules or other data resident ina modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other signaltransport mechanism. The term “modulated data signal” means a signalthat has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such amanner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, andnot limitation, intangible communication signals include wired mediasuch as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless mediasuch as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.

FIG. 6 illustrates another example system (labeled as a mobile device600) that may be useful in implementing the described technology. Themobile device 600 includes a processor 602, a memory 604, a display 606(e.g., a touchscreen display), and other interfaces 608 (e.g., akeyboard). The memory 604 generally includes both volatile memory (e.g.,RAM) and non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory). An operating system610, such as the Microsoft Windows® Phone operating system, resides inthe memory 604 and is executed by the processor 602, although it shouldbe understood that other operating systems may be employed.

One or more application programs 612 are loaded in the memory 604 andexecuted on the operating system 610 by the processor 602. Examples ofapplications 612 include without limitation email programs, schedulingprograms, personal information managers, Internet browsing programs,multimedia player applications, etc. A notification manager 614 is alsoloaded in the memory 604 and is executed by the processor 602 to presentnotifications to the user. For example, when a promotion is triggeredand presented to the shopper, the notification manager 614 can cause themobile device 600 to beep or vibrate (via the vibration device 618) anddisplay the promotion on the display 606.

The mobile device 600 includes a power supply 616, which is powered byone or more batteries or other power sources and which provides power toother components of the mobile device 600. The power supply 616 may alsobe connected to an external power source that overrides or recharges thebuilt-in batteries or other power sources.

The mobile device 600 includes one or more communication transceivers630 to provide network connectivity (e.g., mobile phone network, Wi-Fi®,BlueTooth®, etc.). The mobile device 600 also includes various othercomponents, such as a positioning system 620 (e.g., a global positioningsatellite transceiver), one or more accelerometers 622, one or morecameras 624, an audio interface 626 (e.g., a microphone, an audioamplifier and speaker and/or audio jack), and additional storage 628.Other configurations may also be employed.

In an example implementation, a mobile operating system, variousapplications, and other modules and services may be embodied byinstructions stored in memory 604 and/or storage devices 628 andprocessed by the processing unit 602. User preferences, service options,and other data may be stored in memory 604 and/or storage devices 628 aspersistent datastores. A UEA module 650 communicatively connected withthe processor 602 and the memory 604 may enable one or more of thecapabilities of the UEA system disclosed herein.

The UEA system disclosed herein provides solution to a technologicalproblem necessitated by allowing users to avoid running into otherundesirable contacts using location information of the users and theundesirable contacts and by generating UEA schemes based on projectedlocations of the users and the undesirable contacts.

A method disclosed herein for allows users to avoid such undesirableencounters by determining whether an undesirable contact of the user hasopted for sharing location information, in response to determining thatthe undesirable contact has opted for sharing location information,collecting location signal from the undesirable contact, forecastinganticipated locations of the undesirable contact over a period based onthe location signal of the undesirable contact, forecasting anticipatedlocations of the user over the period, determining potential ofencounter between the user and the undesirable contact based on analysisof anticipated locations of the user and the anticipated locations ofthe undesirable contact over the period, generating an undesirablecontact avoidance scheme based on the potential of encounter, andoptionally notifying the user of the undesirable contact avoidancescheme.

In one implementation of the method, notifying the user of theundesirable contact avoidance scheme further comprising notifying theuser of the undesirable contact avoidance scheme without disclosing anidentity of the undesirable contact. In another implementation,collecting the location signal of the user further includes collectingthe location signal based on GPS of a mobile device of the user andcollecting the location signal of the undesirable contact furtherincludes collecting the location signal based on GPS of a mobile deviceof the undesirable contact. Alternatively, forecasting anticipatedlocations of the user over the period further includes forecastinganticipated locations of the user over the period based on a locationsignal collected from the user's mobile device.

An implementation of the method to avoid such undesirable encountersfurther includes determining that the user has provided at least apredetermined number of contacts within a geographic region of theundesirable contact before collecting location signal from theundesirable contact. Another implementation of the method furtherincludes determining that the user has not provided at least apredetermined number of contacts within a geographic region of theundesirable contact and in response to the determination generating aplurality of dummy contacts. Alternatively, determining potential ofencounter between the user and the undesirable contact further includesevaluating one or more location parameters of an anticipated encounterlocation to determine probability of encounter at the anticipatedencounter location. Yet alternatively, undesirable encounter avoidancescheme is based on at least one of an alternative destination for theuser, an alternative route for the user, and an alternative schedule forthe user. In one implementation, notifying the user of the undesirableencounter avoidance scheme further includes notifying a navigationapplication on a mobile device of the user to alter navigation route.

A physical article of manufacture including one or more tangiblecomputer-readable storage media, encoding computer-executableinstructions for executing on a computer system a computer process, thecomputer process includes in response to determining that an undesirablecontact has opted for sharing location information, collecting locationsignal from the undesirable contact, forecasting anticipated locationsof the user over a period, forecasting anticipated locations of theundesirable contact over the period based on the location signal of theundesirable contact, determining potential of encounter between the userand the undesirable contact based on analysis of anticipated locationsof the user and the anticipated locations of the undesirable contactover the period, and generating an undesirable encounter avoidancescheme based on the potential of encounter. In one implementation, thecomputer process further comprising notifying a navigation app of theuser's mobile device of the undesirable encounter avoidance scheme.

In an alternative implementation, the computer process of generating anundesirable encounter avoidance scheme based on the potential ofencounter further comprising generating an undesirable encounteravoidance scheme based on an alternative destination for the user. Yetalternatively, the computer process of generating an undesirableencounter avoidance scheme based on the potential of encounter furthercomprising generating an undesirable encounter avoidance scheme based onan alternative navigation route for the user. In another implementation,the computer process of generating an undesirable encounter avoidancescheme based on the potential of encounter further comprising generatingan undesirable encounter avoidance scheme based on an alternativeschedule for the user. Yet alternatively, the computer process furthercomprising determining that the user has not provided at least apredetermined number of contacts within a geographic region of theundesirable contact and in response to the determination generating aplurality of dummy contacts.

In an implementation of the physical article of manufacture, thecomputer process of wherein notifying the user of the undesirablecontact avoidance scheme further comprising notifying the user of theundesirable contact avoidance scheme without disclosing an identity ofthe undesirable contact. Alternatively, the computer process furthercomprising determining that the user has provided at least apredetermined number of contacts within a geographic region of theundesirable contact before collecting location signal from theundesirable contact.

A system for delivering personalized user experience includes a memory,one or more processor units, a signal collection module stored in thememory and executable by the one or more processor units, the signalcollection module configured to collect location signals from a user anda plurality of undesirable contacts, a location extrapolation moduleconfigured to determine locations of the user and the plurality ofundesirable contacts over a predetermined time period, and an encounteravoidance module configured determine potential of encounter between theuser and the undesirable contact based on analysis of anticipatedlocations of the user and the anticipated locations of the undesirablecontact over the period and generate an undesirable encounter avoidancescheme based on the potential of encounter. An implementation of thesystem further includes a user interaction module configured to interacta navigation app of the user's mobile device of the undesirableencounter avoidance scheme. Another implementation of the systemincludes a privacy management module configured to determine that theuser has not provided at least a predetermined number of contacts withina geographic region of the undesirable contact and in response to thedetermination generating a plurality of dummy contacts.

The above specification, examples, and data provide a completedescription of the structure and use of exemplary embodiments of theinvention. Since many implementations of the invention can be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, theinvention resides in the claims hereinafter appended. Furthermore,structural features of the different embodiments may be combined in yetanother implementation without departing from the recited claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of allowing a user to avoid unwantedencounters, the method comprising: determining whether an undesirablecontact of the user has opted for sharing location information; inresponse to determining that the undesirable contact has opted forsharing location information, collecting a location information aboutthe undesirable contact based on social network postings of theundesirable contact; forecasting anticipated locations of the user overa period; forecasting anticipated locations of the undesirable contactover the period based on the location information of the undesirablecontact; and displaying anticipated locations of the user and theanticipated locations of the undesirable contact over the period withoutdisclosing an identity of the undesirable contact.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising refining an encounter avoidance scheme basedon the user's usage patterns of encounter avoidance notifications. 3.The method of claim 2, further comprising generating the undesirableencounter avoidance scheme based on analysis of the anticipatedlocations of the user and the anticipated locations of the undesirablecontact over the period.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein generatingthe undesirable encounter avoidance scheme further comprising evaluatinga probability of an encounter of the user and the undesirable contactover the period against a threshold probability.
 5. The method of claim2, wherein generating the undesirable encounter avoidance scheme furthercomprising generating the undesirable encounter avoidance scheme basedon one or more parameters of locations identified as potential locationsfor undesirable encounters between the user and the undesirable contact.6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from the user atleast one of a list of other people identified as undesirable contacts alist of phone numbers identifying undesirable contacts.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising receiving from the user a list of socialnetwork identifiers identifying undesirable contacts.
 8. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the undesirable encounter avoidance scheme is based onat least one of an alternative destination for the user, an alternativeroute for the user, and an alternative schedule for the user.
 9. Themethod of claim 2, further comprising notifying the user of theundesirable encounter avoidance scheme on a mobile device of the user toalter navigation route.
 10. A physical article of manufacture includingone or more devices encoding computer-executable instructions forexecuting on a computer system a computer process, the computer processcomprising: receiving from the user a phone number identifying anundesirable contact; in response to determining that the undesirablecontact has opted for sharing location information, collecting alocation information from the undesirable contact; forecastinganticipated locations of the user over a period; forecasting anticipatedlocations of the undesirable contact over the period based on thelocation information of the undesirable contact; and displayinganticipated locations of the user and the anticipated locations of theundesirable contact over the period without disclosing an identity ofthe undesirable contact.
 11. The physical article of manufacture ofclaim 10, wherein the computer process further comprising refining anencounter avoidance scheme based on the user's usage patterns ofencounter avoidance notifications.
 12. The physical article ofmanufacture of claim 11, further comprising generating the undesirableencounter avoidance scheme based on analysis of the anticipatedlocations of the user and the anticipated locations of the undesirablecontact over the period.
 13. The physical article of manufacture ofclaim 11, wherein generating the undesirable encounter avoidance schemefurther comprising evaluating a probability of an encounter of the userand the undesirable contact over the period against a thresholdprobability.
 14. The physical article of manufacture of claim 11,wherein generating the undesirable encounter avoidance scheme furthercomprising generating the undesirable encounter avoidance scheme basedon one or more parameters of locations identified as potential locationsfor undesirable encounters between the user and the undesirable contact.15. The physical article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein thecomputer process further comprising receiving from the user at least oneof a list of other people identified as undesirable contacts a list ofphone numbers identifying undesirable contacts.
 16. The physical articleof manufacture of claim 10, wherein the computer process furthercomprising determining that the user has provided at least apredetermined number of contacts within a geographic region of theundesirable contact before collecting the location signal from theundesirable contact.
 17. The physical article of manufacture of claim10, wherein the computer process further comprising determining that theuser has not provided at least a predetermined number of contacts withina geographic region of the undesirable contact and in response to thedetermination generating a plurality of dummy contacts.
 18. A system fordelivering personalized user experience, comprising: memory; one or moreprocessors; one or more computer-executable instructions stored in thememory and executable by the one or more processors to collect locationinformation from a user; one or more computer-executable instructionsstored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors todetermine locations of the user and the plurality of undesirablecontacts over a predetermined period; one or more computer-executableinstructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or moreprocessors to collect a location information from the undesirablecontact in response to determining that the undesirable contact hasopted for sharing location information; and one or morecomputer-executable instructions stored in the memory and executable bythe one or more processors to display anticipated locations of the userand the anticipated locations of the undesirable contact over theperiod.
 19. The system of claim 18, further comprising one or morecomputer-executable instructions stored in the memory and executable bythe one or more processors to refine an encounter avoidance scheme basedon the user's usage patterns of encounter avoidance notifications. 20.The system of claim 18, further comprising one or morecomputer-executable instructions stored in the memory and executable bythe one or more processors to determine a potential of encounter betweenthe user and the undesirable contact based on analysis of anticipatedlocations of the user and the anticipated locations of the undesirablecontact over the period.